


He wouldn’t be coming back.

by emo_and_confused



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Grief/Mourning, Hurt No Comfort, Ranboo Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Resurrection, Sad Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Sad Sam | Awesamdude, TommyInnit Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Traumatized Tommyinnit (Video Blogging RPF), but then tommy got resurrected and this got sadder, sorry mate- there's no comfort, there was gonna be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29854965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emo_and_confused/pseuds/emo_and_confused
Summary: Ranboo held and allium in his hand, looking at it. Just.. a purple flower, wasn’t it? So why did it feel like more? Maybe it's because of their first real interaction.. “What, you like flowers, Ranboo?” “Uh, yeah! Yeah, I do.” ..Maybe it's because of the symbolism of the flower. Alliums commonly represent unity, and Ranboo had given Tommy an allium the day they first became friends.{Or}Ranboo plants flowers and mourns. He's mad at the server, mad at Sam, and can't bare to tell Sam Nook of Tommy's death. The allium.. he says his goodbyes.````````````````````````````Spoilers for:[Ranboo's 3/2/21 stream][Tommy's 3/5/21 stream]
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & Sam | Awesamdude, Ranboo & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Sam | Awesamdude & TommyInnit
Comments: 7
Kudos: 79





	He wouldn’t be coming back.

**Author's Note:**

> [A lot of dialogue from Ranboo's 3/2/21 stream]  
> [Tommy's 3/5/21 stream at the end]
> 
> Mentions of death and mourning.  
> Implied sensory overload.

Ranboo held and allium in his hand, looking at it. Just.. a purple flower, wasn’t it? So why did it feel like more? Maybe it's because of their first real interaction.. _“What, you like flowers, Ranboo?” “Uh, yeah! Yeah, I do.”_..Maybe it's because of the symbolism of the flower. Alliums commonly represent unity, and Ranboo had given Tommy an allium the day they first became friends. 

“I gave him one of these and he immediately insulted me. That was the first time we ever interacted,” he said to himself, turning the purple flower over, watching the petals flip over on themselves. He looked at the house built into the hill. A dirt house. Tommy had been on the server since practically the beginning, but he lived in a dirt house. Randoo had planted red and white flowers around. A memorial, he supposes. 

Ranboo places the allium in front of the house, on the path leading up to the door. He doesn't plant it. He just lets it sit there, and waits. 

Tommy’s death shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have been possible. Ranboo didn't understand what situation could have led up to him being trapped in the prison, to his death. The whole point of Dream’s imprisonment was that he was completely locked away. Away from the rest of the server. Away from Tommy.

They should’ve helped him. The adults, they should’ve helped. Ranboo knows he’s a hypocrite, but he can't find it in himself to care too much. Tommy is dead, and he doesn't know how to deal with it. He shouldn't have to deal with it. Tommy wasn't much younger than him, and yet, all three of his lives have been lost. Hell, Ranboo met Tommy while he was on one life. Ranboo heard that Tommy had been living with only one life since the first war. He was just a kid. ~~_They’re_ just kids ~~. And no one helped him. 

“No one did anything to help,” Ranboo whispers, and he directs the words to the flower that lays on the ground. “So, that flower will stay there until it despawns... and, with it, Tommy will too.” 

The allium stands for unity, and it stands for the friendship he had with Tommy. Their relationship was a rocky one, but they held a sense of unexplainable trust in the other. It had been there since they met; when Tommy invited him on one of his schemes, and then took the blame for him. When Ranboo had stuck up for him when no one else did. 

Death.. is inevitable. But Tommy was not meant to die so young. Or, maybe he was. He shouldn't have, in any case. He should've gotten to grow up, to at least make it to his 17th birthday. Tommy was 16 when Dream killed him for the final time, when his abuser beat him to death in a room made of obsidian. 

The allium despawns. 

Ranboo breathes. 

“Goodbye, Tommy,” he says to the open air. “You were interesting.. but you were still a friend.”

He lets out a shaky breath, crouching to the ground and touching the spot of dirt where the flower once was.

Tommy.. Tommy shouldn’t have died. He shouldn’t have. He wasn’t supposed to. He was supposed to be fine, he was supposed to live. 

“I just don’t get it. I just don’t get how it happened in the first place,” he says to himself. He’s been doing that a lot recently. He doesn’t know if he’s hoping Tommy can hear him or if he’s just trying to hear himself think. His head is loud, too many thoughts. 

“Why was it able to happen?” 

Ranboo stood up, and looked at the house. The hotel was visible just over the hill, and he focused on it. The hotel. What was Tommy’s hotel, and now Jack’s hotel. The prison is just beyond it, past the hotel and past Bad and Skeppy’s mansion. 

The prison. The prison that Sam built, and is warden of. The prison that holds Dream. The prison that Tommy died in. The prison that.. he was banned from.

“I’m literally banned from the prison,” Ranboo breathes. He runs a hand over his face. He had forgotten about that.

He needs to talk to Sam. The warden. The person who let Tommy visit Dream and then locked him in the prison. Ranboo starts heading over to the prison, but sees Sam near the hotel, and Ranboo is relieved that finding him was an easy process.

The two of them stopped on the prime path, and Ranboo was filled with a sudden anger that he wasn’t used to. 

“Hey, Sam.” Pleasantries. He could play nice, for the moment.

“Oh, hey, Ranboo.”

“How- how are you holding up with everything?”

“I’m.. I’m alright.. all things considered.” Sam’s voice breaks. Ranboo can’t stand it. This was so messed up. “How are you?”

“I mean, as okay as someone can be right now.” God, why was this so hard. “I know you.. you were kind of, um, close to Tommy..”

“Yeah, uh, yeah.. Um. Its..,” Sam trailed off, and Ranboo wanted to scream. Enough with the goddamn pleasantries, he wanted to understand. 

“So..I’m just confused about a couple of things, man,” Ranboo says, and his voice shakes with emotion. With anger, with despair. Sam messed up, and his screw up cost a person, ~~a friend, a child~~ ~~,~~ his life. “I know you're probably still dealing with it, so I’m sorry for being so angry, but that's mostly the whole enderman thing, so..”

“Okay..”

“Do you know _anything_ about what happened between Dream and Tommy?”

“Yeah, I was there, I know-,"

Ranboo cut him off. “No, I’m not talking about his final days. I’m talking about.. before that. Before prison, before the whole disc battle. Do you know what happened to Tommy?” 

Exile. The word wasn't said, but it was heard. 

“Yeah. Dream.. started admitting.. telling me what happened.”

“So you know what Tommy had to go through?” Ranboo made eye contact with Sam. He was seething inside. Sam nodded, and Ranboo continued. “So, you know.. So you know what Dream was capable of? You know what he already did to Tommy?”

“Yeah. I know.”

“So you knew he was dangerous to Tommy.” It wasn't a question. But Sam still gave confirmation.

“And.. your first thought was to keep him in there, with him for a week?”

“You don't understand-,” 

“What don’t I understand?” Ranboo raised his voice. There was a lot he didn’t understand, but he felt like he understood the situation pretty well.

Contract or no contract, signed waiver or no signed waiver, Sam knew about what Tommy went through with Dream during exile. He knew, and he still kept them both in the same cell because of an unidentified security issue.

“You could’ve done anything to help him!” 

“There was nothing I could do.”

Tears pricked at his eyes, and he tried to reign himself in. Scaring his face wasn’t going to help. 

“Nothing you could do? Sam, you never thought to have a contingency plan for security issues while someone is visiting? He is one of the most dangerous people on the server, and-,”

“I didn't think something would happen to Tommy specifically.” Sam’s voice is broken, emotionally drained, as if he had been crying for hours and was left with nothing. 

“Didn't think that something would happen to Tommy-,”

“Don't forget, I didn't let everyone in. I didn't let Tubbo go visit him, there's a reason for that..”

“You didn't think,” Ranboo started again, only for Sam to cut him off a second time. 

“I didn't think that he would kill him. He admitted himself that he needed Tommy, the only thing that he would talk about when he was in there alone is Tommy. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. And Tommy wanted closure, so he was going to visit him for the last time. I thought this was going to be good for him, so he could move on,” Sam said, and Ranboo felt his heart sink lower. 

“You didn't let him out for a week.”

“I couldn't!”

“You thought of everything for this prison, but didn’t have another way for the warden’s to get in during a security issue. You’re smart, Sam, I know you are, but you didn't..”

“More ways in means there's more ways out..”

“He still _died_ ,” Ranboo felt a tear slip down his cheek. It burned. 

“I know..”

“Are you sure there is nothing…”

“If I thought there was something I could’ve done, I would've done it.. By the time that I knew Dream was.. attacking him, I- I headed back there to try and stop him immediately and when I got to the main cell he had already done it.”

Ranboo’s heart stuttered in his chest. Sam continued. 

“And then, I was standing on the other side of the lava, screaming at him.. and he just _laughed_.”

Ranboo let out a shaky breath. This was so.. hard.

“So.. the explosion.. do you know.. at least, who did it?”

“No. No, I haven't even been able to find that out,” Sam exhaled, and he sounded so tired. “I am going to find out who did it, and when I do..”

“I can help you with that,” Ranboo volunteered. 

“Okay.”

Ranboo was so tired of it all. This was, in a way, his fault. He wouldn't have had the prison built if it wasn't for Tommy’s exile. The exile that Ranboo was technically somewhat responsible for. If he has just talked Tommy out of robbing George’s house, if he had just not let Tommy take all the blame, then maybe things would be different. 

He told Sam as much

“No,” Sam sighed. “No, Ranboo. It’s not your fault.. do you have your memory book?”

Ranboo froze a little. “Yeah- Yeah, I have one.”

“Can I see it? I wont read it, I just need to write something important so you remember it.”

Ranboo gave him the book with shaky hands, and watched as Sam used the quill to write. They stood in silence, Ranboo’s heart beating a little too fast and Sam’s breath a little too slow.

Sam handed back the book.

_‘Tommy is not my fault. What happened to Tommy was Sam’s fault. Sam is responsible..’_

“I’m going to try and figure out what happened,” Sam said after a few moments. “If you find out something about what happened, please, come talk to me. Be safe. Goodbye.”

“Okay...Goodbye.”

Sam walked away, and Ranboo found himself stuck. He didn't know where to go from here. He.. he needed to help figure out what happened. That was the only thing he could do, right? He started walking towards the prison. Maybe there was evidence.. clues.. Anything.

“There's nothing,” he said, after a moment of examining the terrain. “There's not going to be anything.” He sighed. More tears slipped out. His skin flamed with heat. 

He turned around, planning on heading back to.. to anywhere. Maybe he was going to Tommy’s house again, maybe he was going home, he didn’t know. He hadn’t figured it out.

Turns out he didn’t have to figure it out, because he caught sight of Sam Nook standing outside of ~~Tommy’s~~ the hotel. 

..Had anyone told Sam Nook what happened? 

“Hey,” Ranboo greeted. 

“HELL RANBOO. HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY?”

Ranboo severely doubted anyone told him what happened.

“I’m doing.. doing alright. Yeah.” What a lie. 

“HOW IS YOUR HOTEL COMING ALONG?”

“It’s going, heh, it’s going alright,” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I mean, I guess it’s kind of, it is kind of weird that, well, I mean, we did kind of open it up right next to you. Heh heh. but it’s going well. Yeah.”

“DO NOT WORRY. TOMMYINNIT IS EXCITED FOR THE COMPETITION.”

“Yeah. I bet he is. I bet he is. Yeah. it’ll be fun.” Ranboo was lying through his teeth. 

“I AM SURE WHEN HE GETS BACK HE WILL BE EXCITED TO SEE THE RIVALRY AND WANT TO SEE THE HOTEL GROW EVEN BETTER.”

Oh. Ranboo’s heart stopped, and he forced his tears back. He was _not_ going to be the one to tell him. 

“I’m sure he will.. I’m sure he will, Sam Nook.. it’ll be fun. Won’t it?” 

“IT WILL BE FUN TO BEAT YOU OUT OF ALL THE BUSINESS ON THE SERVER.”

“Ha.. yeah. We’ll see. We’ll see, I mean..,” Ranboo trailed off, not knowing where he was going with the sentence. 

“I AM SURE THAT TOMMYINNIT WILL NOT BACK DOWN FROM THE COMPETITION.”

“I bet he won’t.. He never does.” Oh god. That was the truest thing he had said during this conversation. “ _He never does_.”

“YOU BEST HAVE YOUR HOTEL AS AMAZING AS YOU CAN.”

“I’ll try. I really will.. I will,” He said, more to himself than Sam Nook. “So when Tommy returns it’ll.. it’ll be a good competition.”

“HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY RANBOO. WE AT THE BIG INNIT HOTEL ARE ALWAYS READY TO BEAT OFFERS. TOMMYINNIT IS COMMITTED TO BEING THE BEST.”

“Yeah. He is.. I’ll see you around.” He needs to get out of this conversation. “I’ll see you around.”

Ranboo starts to walk away but is stopped when Sam Nook starts talking again. 

“COME AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO STAY AT THE BEST HOTEL ON THE DREAM SMP. GOODBYE.”

“..Yeah,” Ranboo says, a goodbye in its own right, and walks into the Bee’N’Boo hotel sight.

Tears slip down his face. “It hurts so much.” 

He shuffled through chests aimlessly, not knowing what exactly he was doing. He.. he missed Tommy. He didn't know why, they weren’t close, and hadn’t interacted all that much since his exile. But he missed him. Ranboo started walking back to Tommy’s house. God, everything was so draining.

He stood outside the hill-house and stared. The flowers he had planted were growing tall, bright red and pure whites sprouting from the ground. 

“If I’m entirely honest,” he said to himself. “From wherever he is,” Ranboo looked at the sky, and then to the ground, before continuing, “he’s probably yelling at these flowers, if I’m entirely honest. He did not like flowers.” A broken laugh left his lips.

The house looked a lot.. nicer, with the flowers. Ranboo knew better than to think it would last. Everything of Tommy’s was either stolen or griefed. The hotel showed over the hill. Two of the last things of Tommy’s. 

Ranboo’s eyes trailed over to the bench. Tommy’s bench. The bench where Tommy took Tubbo and they played their discs together back when they joined the server. The bench where Tommy took Ranboo when he was going to be exiled. The bench was important.

Ranboo slowly moved towards it, and sat down. He kept his gaze straight ahead, and looked over the cliff’s edge. There was no music playing. He didn't think the jukebox would ever play music again. 

Tommy was.. he was gone. He was really gone. It felt so surreal. Tommy shouldn't be gone, and yet he was. The server was never going to hear him swear again. Was never going to hear his incredibly loud laugh, full of joy. Was never going to see him walk the prime path. Was never going to see.. him again. Tommy was gone. He was dead. 

Ranboo looks to his left, where Tommy would be if he was there. If he was alive. He returns his gaze straight ahead, and lets out a quiet and even breath.

“See you later, Tommy.”

He stands up, his fists clenched, and starts walking away. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t getting overwhelmed. 

He passed an opening to Tommy’s tunnels underneath his house, and pauses. 

“Wait a second,” he mumbles. “I remember something.”

He goes down the ladder, and enters Tommy’s meeting room. This.. this room. This is where Tommy had brought him and explained the plan. The plan to rob George’s house, something Tommy called malicious but was something that happened on the server all the time. 

_“Have you ever been robbed?” “I- I don't think.. well, yeah, actually, Karl stole one of my golden apples-” “‘Kay, okay, good. Was it traumatic?” “N- Not really?” “Good. So funnel that trauma, Ranboo.”_

Ranboo moved to the chair he sat in from before, talking to himself. It was the only way to understand his thoughts nowadays. 

“That’s where he stood.. I was right here.”

This shouldn't be a nostalgic thing. He and Tommy sat here to commit a crime. And it led to bad things. But Ranboo remembers how Tommy, despite the insults, welcomed him on to the server and immediately started to interact with him. Tommy was Ranboo’s first friend on the server, as weird as it seems now.

“Wait.. is it?” He trailed off, moving off the seat and over to the wall, pulling out his pickaxe. He mined the block, revealing a chest. A chest from not-so-long ago, but from a time that feels forever ago. He opens the chest. 

“There’s everything that we stole from his house,” he says, smiling a little. All of the stuff from George’s house. It’s.. it’s disheartening, in a way. Tommy didn’t even benefit from the robbery. But, at the same time, the chest full of stuff represents another time. A time where Tommy was alive and scheming and pranking. Ranboo half laughs, a breathy gesture. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. I won’t tell anyone, Tommy.”

He replaces the block and climbs the ladder.

Ranboo got to the gate on the prime path before realizing something. His head whipped around, and he walked back, going down the ladder and reentering the meeting room. 

“Wait,” he says, not truly believing what he thought he saw. “Was that-? Wait, was that?”

He breaks the block to reveal the chest again, and opens it as fast as he can. He searches, his eyes flicking through the contents before it lands on its target. He.. he saw correctly.

He picks up the purple flower that laid in the chest, somehow preserved. Wow. The flower feels both like air and like lead in his hands. 

“It’s the flower that I gave to him.”

He replaces the block that covers the chest, right after putting the allium back where it had been.

Tommy was gone. And he wouldn’t be coming back.

* * *

Tommy woke up, his own voice calling for Wilbur echoing in his ear. -- _‘Wil?’ --_ He gasped, eyes unfocused and then suddenly, everything was _so loud_. 

“Tommy?”

Dream. Dream, that was Dream’s voice. Why could he hear Dream’s voice? 

He turned around, eyes finding green and Tommy froze. Dream was here. 

Where was he? He's not.. there’s no void anymore? God, why was it so loud?

The prison. He’s in the prison. He's in the prison with Dream. Why was he in the prison with Dream?

He could hear himself arguing, yelling, stuttering. He could hear Dream questioning him, the amusement and fascination clear in his voice. He could feel himself gasping for air, shaking, blinking rapidly. He could see Dream, the obsidian walls crying, the lava at the front of the cell. 

He was still waking up. It was too much. Almost an out-of-body experience. He was dead. He was dead, wasn't he?

Why isn't he still dead?

The revive book. Dream read the revive book. Dream can revive dead people.

Dream wasn't lying.

It hits him, and he re-enters his body, his soul and mind merging once more. He.. he was stuck in the prison. He couldn't kill Dream, he’d be alone. He can't handle being alone. 

Why is it so loud?! What was that sound?!

He isn't getting out. Sam wasn’t going to check on Dream. The server thinks he’s dead.

He was dead.

But he came back.

**Author's Note:**

> Advice? Critique? Validation?
> 
> Drink water, or something. Go be healthy,,,,
> 
> Tumblr: emo-and-confused


End file.
